Name: The Medieval Islamicate World: Crash Course History of Science #7
Uploaded: 2020-04-13T16:28:23.000Z
Duration: 13 min 4 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

The religion of Islam significantly influenced knowledge-making in the greater Mediterranean

Islamicate scholars—meaning people influenced by Islamic civilization, regardless of their

religious views—gave us terms such as “algebra,” “azimuth,” “algorithm,” “alcohol,”

We'll dive into Islamic medicine and philosophers such as the great Persian polymath Ibn Sina

For now, let's explore the beginnings of Islamicate natural philosophy.

Islamicate power expanded rapidly after the Prophet Muhammad's death in CE 632.

What began as one vast Arab-governed state soon fractured into two spheres of political

influence: a western one centered in southern Spain, with a capital at Córdoba, and an

eastern one including the great cities of northern Africa as well as Arabia and Mesopotamia.

This eastern empire, the highly urbanized Abbasid Caliphate,

existed in some form, increasingly fragmented, from 750–1517.

The Abbasid Caliphate was a crossroads or trading zone for Persian, Indian, and Byzantine

cultures, as well as for the religions of Islam, Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism.

Many languages flourished across the Abbasid Caliphate, as they did in the Emirate of Córdoba.

This blend of cultures and belief systems made early Islamicate science cosmopolitan—that

A high literacy rate thanks to Islam's focus on the Qur'an meant that many people—well,

noble men, at least—could study natural philosophical texts.

Further, Islam-the-religion called on its adherents to treat others as equals, helping

make Islamicate knowledge production more egalitarian.

And ongoing support by pious philanthropists including heads of states allowed Islamicate

polymaths to study natural phenomena systematically.

Baghdad, the first Abbasid capital, was founded

A sprawling metropolis quickly grew up around the original, carefully planned city.

And Baghdad became the largest urban area in the world by 930, with a population of

Key for our story today: Baghdad housed the Bayt al-Ḥikmah or House

This great library grew out of al-Mansur's private collection, which he opened up to

visiting scholars, including delegations from India.

Al-Mansur's successor, Caliph al-Rashid, carried on this tradition.

Al-Rashid also supported the Translation Movement, which we'll get to shortly.

But first, let's reflect on his rule as a great example of the cosmopolitan character

Charlemagne sent a mission from France to al-Rashid's court in 799 with gifts.

So in 802, al-Rashid sent Charlemagne an embassy including an elephant named Abul-Abbas and

a water clock that featured clockwork knights who emerged once per hour.

You could see the elephant's journey as one origin of veterinary science: the Abbasid

diplomats kept the elephant healthy walking from India to Baghdad to France, and it lived

And, to the Franks, the water clock was simply mind-blowing, something they'd never even

But it was al-Rashid's successor, Caliph al-Maʾmūn, who in 832 refounded

the House of Wisdom specifically as an international center for translation and research.

Al-Maʾmūn was involved in the House's daily operations, and he sponsored knowledge

production programmatically, inspiring his successors to do the same.

By 850, the House of Wisdom had become the largest library in the world.

Al-Maʾmūn sponsored families of scholar–translators

to bring useful texts into Arabic from Greek, Chinese, Sanskrit, Persian, and Syriac.

This should be known as the “Useful Texts into Arabic Movement” but, for some reason,

is called the Translation Movement instead.

This movement began with Persian texts concerning astrology and astronomy.

Remember that, across the ancient and medieval worlds, astronomy was the study of the heavens,

and astrology the study of the influence of heavenly bodies on earthly matters.

While both were studied, astrology was seen as more useful.

After texts about the stars, the translators moved onto others.

To feed this program, al-Maʾmūn sent emissaries to collect Greek scientific manuscripts from

the Byzantines—and began demanding them as loot in war.

The Translation Movement lasted from roughly 750–950.

By 950, virtually every Greek scholarly text had been translated multiple times, and the

Many translators of Baghdad particularly fell for the works of Aristotle.

One of the greatest Islamicate philosophers, Ibn Rushd, is sometimes called

“The Commentator,” meaning the number-one Aristotle fan.

To this day, more classical Greek commentaries on Aristotle may be available in Arabic than

Why was Caliph al-Maʾmūn so into the Persian and Greek science?

For one, supporting translations was a sign of civic status, and a worthy cause.

Al-Maʾmūn also saw scientific translation as highly practical.

For example, a better understanding of astronomy led to more accurate official timekeeping

And improved geographical knowledge helped more accurately align prayers to Mecca.

The Translation Movement also fostered a strong appreciation for reasoned thought, at least

This rubbed off on religious philosophy, giving rise to the school of mu'tazilism.

Mu'tazila such as al-Maʾmūn believed that rationalism could be used to understand both

They brought the Greek tradition of reasoned debate about the nature of the cosmos into

an Islamicate social context, looking beyond a literal reading of the Qur'an for sources

In fact, places of learning under the Abbasid

Caliphate included observatories, hospitals, and public libraries, as well as mosques and

Madrasas were critical centers of knowledge transmission.

There were thirty in Baghdad in the 1200s, and one hundred and fifty in Damascus by 1500.

Each madrasa had its own library full of paper books.

Paper had been introduced to western Asia from China, and paper factories appeared in

Samarkand, Baghdad, Cairo, Morocco, and finally in Spain by 1150.

While they were religious centers, madrasas were also places where students could learn

law as well as Greek natural philosophy, including logic and arithmetic, astronomy, and astrology.

In translating the texts, these polymaths wrote commentaries on them, comparing, summarizing,

Even when motivated by utilitarian concerns,

Subtitles ListPlay Video

The Medieval Islamicate World: Crash Course History of Science #7

improve

average

practical

character